BUSY, BUSY

Well I have a new assignment!  I got called as something that is called the ¨Visero¨, it is a missionary that works in the offices of the mission. I am in charge of the whole missions visas and being legal in Argentina.  I am in charge of about 200 people! Usually the last Visero stays a little bit to train the next one to show him what´s up but I didn't get that privledge... I will just have to figure it out on my own, and use all of the stuff that he left me here in the offices.  But I am excited about it, I think it will be fun!  Luckily I will be able call the last Visero so that is good.  Let´s hope that I don´t explode! It is going to be an awesome experience and I will have to rely a TON on the Lord to help me to know what to do and be able to make hard decisions!

Also my companion is named Elder Ginatto. He is from Brasil and is the ¨Pensionero¨ Or like the apartment missionary, so basically I have two jobs since I have to be with Elder Ginatto and do all the apartments and do all of the Visa stuff! I am gonnna be super busy and it will be pretty awesome! 

We pretty much don´t have an area because we are always busy with all of the visa and apartment stuff.

This is kinda gross, but I got athletes foot.   It was so bad!!  I could just feel my foot throbbing all the time!  It was keeping me up at night and it was just painful all day.  One night I prayed that it would feel better because it was starting to effect my work.  The next morning I woke up and it was completely healed. It was seriously a miracle. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! The Lord takes care of us so much!!! 

The weather is still pretty hot, these past couple of mornings it was a little cool because it has been raining the past couple nights but this next week it is supposed to be hot again.  IT will be pretty hot up till like April. 

This last week we had a pretty cool experience. We were in the house of a member... And to be honest we were just there because we had to use their bathroom, haha but while I was in the Bathroom one of the kids of the family (11 year old) told Elder Funk that he had a cousin that he wanted to share the gospel with. So we went right over and they were home! It was awesome! We had a really cool lesson with the whole family about keeping the Sabbath Day holy and they said they would come to church.  Ok so they didn't come to church after all but they felt the Spirit during the lesson, I felt the spirit, and it was very cool! I hope that Elder Funk can help them to be able to progress!!

Also Elder Funk and I were able to do a service project to help a family clean out a bunch of junk in their yard.  I am going to miss Elder Funk.  He is so awesome!!

I don't have much else for today.  I forgot my notes and we did so much stuff today that my mind is just like blank.  But today was pretty interesting. We got a bunch of new areas that had opened up, we went and took new missionaries to their new area. Busy, busy day!  That was all that pretty much happened this week. Hope that you all have a good one and that you do something fabulous this week that helps someone else!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Ward. 

P.S. I will have my P-day on Saturday and sometimes I won´t have time to write you so I might even write you on Sunday. Love ya!

LOVE MISSIONARY WORK

What a great week!!! ALL of the missions from Buenos Aires where invited to attend a conference with Elder Bednar.  It was AWESOME!!! I saw a bunch of familiar faces!!! I saw Elder Alexander, Elder Donnely and Elder Blake from the West mission and my MTC group, I saw some friends that are in the North mission that I know from school (one of them is the cousin on the miner`s in our ward), I also saw one of Nate`s lacrosse Buddies Elder Chris Jones! I didn't recognize him at first but then I realized who it was. We didn't have much time to chat and take pictures because they were pretty strict about having us sit down so ELDER BEDNAR could come and leave as planned because he has a busy week planned down here in the South America South area!

President & Sister Robertson and missionaries from the BAW Mission

Elder Jones

Elder Miner from the BAN Mission

We were there for 3 hours and it just flew by! I felt like it was 15 minutes but my notebook was fuuulllll by the end of it. He taught us such important stuff that was so critical. He didn`t want us to write ANYTHING down that was said by him, or by the area presidency. He wanted us to write down what the spirit was teaching us because he is the teacher and the person ¨teaching the class¨ is there to just invite the spirit. And he gave us 3 talks that we needed to read before hand which were ¨Ask in faith¨, ¨Converted unto the Lord¨, and ¨Learning by Faith¨. 

He talked about the concept of Agents and Objects. Here`s an example. If I say in a prayer ¨please bless the people that didn`t come to church this week that they will come next week.¨ That is being an object, waiting for God to out of no where have all these people miracilously come to church. Which he can do... Or you could say this ¨Please bless everyone in the congregation that they might help those who didn`t come this week to feel the importance of coming to church.¨ I thought this was important because in the previous example we are planning on using our agency to help a greater cause, and expecting miracles from our work. The other one is waiting for the miracles to happen without doing anything. 

Yeah. I definitely felt that that man was a Special Witness of Jesus Christ on the earth. WOW!!!

In other news.....Transfers are next week.  I won`t hear anything until this next Saturday! So for sure by this time next week I will be with my new comp or here in Ezeiza!! I am thinking that I am going to go, but we will see what happens.

The family that was going to be baptized is super busy during the week and the only days they can meet with us are Saturdays. So it made it impossible for them to have been baptized this month, I am thinking that at this rate that they will be baptized at the end of march. The only problem is that we have to teach them all of the missionary lessons and that`s like at least 8 or 9 visits.

Oh my lanta I had a funny thing happen. SO after the Bednar conference we were super tired because we had to wake up at 3:30 to get over to the capilla in the center of Buenos Aires in time.  After it was over we had a meeting where we reviewed what we had learned.  I was nodding off big time. Elder Funk said something like. ¨I learned that is is so important to UNFOLD the scriptures-¨ and for whatever reason I interrupted him when I was half-conscious and half-asleep, I do not even remember this but I said ¨Oh yeah! Like a banana!¨ Elder Funk looked over and realized I was completely knocked out and he just burst out laughing and I woke up and he told me what happened and yeah. Good times. 

MORE MIRACLES!!!! Yesterday we found 2 families that want to hear the missionary lessons. One of them were references from some members (one is a less active and his wife isn't a member and they just had a baby) And the other family we just contacted them and supposedly they are family of one of the members in the ward! It was super awesome to find them, we can`t wait to contact the member and tell them what happened!!!!

We were fairly thrifty this month so we decided to eat some good ole Salmon this week. It`s kindof expensive here, but man. IT was worth it, and we didn`t get too much either, haha

Ok well that pretty much sums up my week. We luckily had a ton of lessons this week and we keep getting more and more. Elder M. Russel Ballard said that we should have at least 15 lessons a week, and we have been strugling with that the last little while but these last 2 weeks we have been doing it! And surpassing the number! It`s AWESOME! Especially because since the Elder Bednar thing we have changed the way we teach and it makes me think of the new teaching program for the youth that is come follow me or something like that where the general Authorities said that the teachers should do 20% of the talking and the students 80%, and being missionaries we have to do a little more because we are teaching them new principles but we listen more and we are focusing more on the investigators!! WOO!!! LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!!

Well hope that all of you ahve a good week!!!! 

Elder Ward

Wow that was long email... ENJOY!!

Thanks Grandma Ward

Thanks Momma!

WOO!!!!

So something happened that was really funny/not funny but I thought it was funny.  One day we were having a lesson with an awesome family.  The spirit was just super strong and I guess their bunny couldn't handle the heat, it felt too much guilt about something. It literally started convulsing and screaming and then it just stopped after a couple seconds and died.  The daughter was bawling, so we had to come back another day. Silly rabbits, REPENT.

Today we got a haircut and have been reading some talks selected from our mission President by Elder Bednar because this week on Wednesday we get to hear from Elder Bednar!! IT`S GOING TO BE AWESOME!!

Best Hair cut Ever!

Clean Pench

Today we also had a district activity that was pretty chill, we just watched the movie "Up".  It is just super hot outside and we actually had to leave a little early to come and write the family because we have to write our emails before 4 and we had to go get our haircuts in the morning.  Everyone in the district meeting told me that the Sister that cut my hair made the back into a point.  They all were laughing super hard so yeah. Let`s hope Elder Bednar doesn`t drop the cane on me... HERE`S HOPING!!! Haha

But have a super super good week! Hope that ya`ll enjoyed President`s day and that Nate has fun starting with LAX again!!!

So Elder Funk's family didn't get his email last week either.  There must have been something wrong at the internet cafe.  So sorry about that!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

ELDER WARD!!!!!!!!!!! WOO!!!!!!!!!!!

DO RIGHT NOW

Bueno this week was a little saddening, haha although it did have a ton of ups it had a couple downs too! The only little thing that happened was that we had a hard time getting the members to come with us.    We had planned to have 10 members come and do visits with us during the week and almost all of them cancelled!   There was only one lady (she washes our white clothes every week) that came out with us, her name is Juana Belizan and she reminds me so much of my Grandmas, she is just full of energy, always has a smile on and just loves us so much!  This week we will visit the members more and help them to have a better and more invigorated excitement to help in is the work!!

We had an activity this week called Minute to win it. We just used the game show idea and did a ton of games that were little and ya had to do it faster then the other team. and a ton of people came! I mean it was supposed to start at like 5:30, and we had invited a ton of investigators.  When 5:30 came around there were 12 investigators in the church! And only 2 members!  But after 40 minutes some families finally showed up and everyone had a ton of fun. It was awesome! In the end we had about 50 people, so it had a good turn out.  Some examples of the games were, who could eat a slice of watermelon the fastest, put an Oreo on your forehead and see who would eat it with out using their hands, take 75 tissues out of it`s box as fast as possible, but yeah it was super fun! It was a good way to have the investigators to get to know the church, and while we were waiting for some members to come we had a tour of the church and it was awesome!

Today we have a zone activity and we are going to play frisbee at the temple and eat some gruuuub. So it should be really fun, I will take pics to show you all next week. This next week on Tuesday we also have a zone conference.  We are preparing ourselves to learn a lot of stuff there, and then in 2 weeks we are going to receive a visit from Elder Bednar. 

Buenos Aires Temple

This week I have been reading a lot of talks from this last conference, because I remember that I heard somewhere that the conference talks were revelation from God for the next 6 months, not to read them right after conference and forget about them, so that would be an invitation! Read all of the conference talks from this last October conference before this next one starts! It will really help you to know what God wants you to focus on and do right now! I sure know that since I have been reading the talks I have learned so much!!!

Well have a good week everyone!

Elder Ward.

THIS GOSPEL IS SO TRUE!!

Well this week was a good one. We had a lot of lessons with the investigators that we already have.  We didn't find as many people like last week. But that`s ok.  We have a lot of progress made with the investigators that we have and sadly we are going to drop a couple this next week because they aren't progressing and aren't keeping their commitments. That is just the most frustrating and most difficult thing to do as a missionary, have your investigators not keep their commitments. Because we can literally bring the spirit into their lives if we are all doing what we are supposed to.  If they aren't ready to accept it right now maybe they will be another time.  We need to work with prepared people. There are so many prepared people, we just have to focus a lot harder in trying to find them!!

We also had a service activity this week, It made me feel like I was in the movie ¨Holes¨ And when you see the pictures you will know why, haha. We are digging a hole for a family that needs to be 17 feet (5 meters) deep. And we aren`t even close, haha we are going to go over there a little bit every week until it is done.  Right now we are almost at 2 meters. 

Today for P-Day we were going to go to the temple and play frisbee in the feild over there and have a picnic with the zone, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut. it rained, haha so we are going to do that next week.

Also this week we had a special training by the area presidency.  The South America South includes Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.   The presidency talked about goals that they want the members of this area to focus on. These three things are 1. Keep the Sabbath Day Holy 2. Be Self-Sufficient 3. Go to the temple often. 

These three goals have really  helped me a lot! Obviously I can`t focus on being self sufficient with a job and going to the temple as a missionary, but I can keep the Sabbath day and be self sufficient in a spiritual sense. So I challenge you guys that you can make a goal for yourself that has to do with one of those 3 things! They will really help you draw closed to your Savior!

This week we invited about 15 people to come to church and only 2 came. Well what ya gonna do. We as missionaries just have to teach (with the spirit), invite (with the spirit), rinse and repeat, and if nothing happens... Well we gotta say goodbye, haha well yeah so this is what I learned this week! But luckily for everyone (including me especially), we have the atonement of Jesus Christ to be able to help us leave our old lives of sin behind and live a better one! This Gospel is so true! Have a good week!!

Elder Bednar is coming to our mission on the 24th of February... WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Elder Ward

I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!

So wow this week was awesome, we found 15 new people to teach... Yeah that was a stinkin miracle, and the grand majority of them were references from members!!! It was just super super awesome to see people this week sharing the gospel and their testimonies with their friends. And lemme just tell ya that the testimony of the member friend is a lot more powerful and meaningful to the investigator then ours. We had some good testimonies too, but it just doesn`t compare to that of the member friend. It just PENETRATES the soul of that person! So if you give a reference to the missionaries, go with them, to contact them, to teach them, just everything!!!

Elder Funk and I are getting along very well!! We are getting better and improving together, setting goals, and just having a really good time, we just hope that this next month of February we will have a baptism! It has been TOO long since the last one. WAY TOO LONG. And we found a TON of people this last week so we are hoping that all of these new people that we are finding that some of them are ready to be baptized!! BOOO YAH!!!!

Unfortunately we had a very said experience this week.  We were going to an appointment and when we got to the house the parents of the family were screaming at each other and throwing stuff and hitting... It wasn`t good.  We don`t know really know what happened but we assume from what they said that it was caused by Pornography. I have such a strong testimony now, how pornography can completely and utterly tear apart a family. We said a prayer all together, we kneeled on the ground to try and calm down the situation and then we left and told the 1st counselor about it... Sadly we couldn't do much but we taught a principle, invited them to change and left. I will soon not forget that.

There was a baptism this last weekend from the sisters in our ward and the lady was living with a member so they got married on Friday, baptized on Saturday, and confirmed Sunday! It was for sure a really awesome weekend for them and we were happy to be there and have some investigators go to the baptism to see how it is!! I made a carrot cake for the baptism.  I have made one for almost every baptism that I have attended here in Argentina.  It is my little tradition.

We did a service project on Saturday morning.  We took out a wall and put some brick on the 2nd floor of a house.  Woo!

Well that is all for this week. My only invitation would be that we help the missionaries by giving them our cherished and loved friends and family members and then we help them to help the friend get converted!! WOO!!  I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!!

Love you all!

Elder Ward

MORE MIRACLES TO COME

Well Elder Funk and I are staying together for another 6 weeks!! WOO! So we hope that the couple people that we have found and are working with get baptized!!

We had a ton of miracles this week!  We were walking in the street and some girl ran up to us and said she had a question, I was expecting her to ask the usual ¨do you have a girlfriend¨ or something like that but she was genuinely interested in the message that we had, and her sister too!!  So we went by the other day and it was just a really good lesson, and they both have read and prayed and keep praying and say that they will keep praying till they know this is true! That was a miracle and just totally out of no where! And their mom too!! AND

Also a family that hasn't been to church in like 5 years came yesterday!  It was amazing and then they were talking with the rest of their family and pretty much thanks to them it sparked the rest of the family and now this next week we will have like 20 people at church that usually don`t come. AND

There was a family that came yesterday that was new and had just moved to Ezeiza and they want to hear the lessons and get baptized!  No one had even contacted them but they found the church and just came! AWESOME!!!

We had a huge storm that happened on Thursday night.  It was like a micro burst, and it was just CRAZY!!  Right next to our house a lightning bolt hit a transformer or something and the whole neighborhood`s lights went out.  We just barely got electricity back this morning, so it has been kinda terrible not having fans at night because it is so just hot and super humid.  Not much sleep has been had, haha I actually started sleeping on the floor because it is a lot cooler then being on the bed. I will chalk that up as another miracle since luckily no one was hurt.  It threw trees and roofs too!! We saw a handful of houses the day after that were completely missing a roof!!

We had the COOLEST THING EVER THIS LAST WEEK. This hasn`t happened for ten years but there was a broadcast from the church that was a training for missionaries WORLDWIDE! We had it on Wednesday and the training was titled ¨Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts¨.  It was so great!  We had a handful of really awesome talks, live training with missionaries in Ogden Utah, and just wow. It was an incredible experience.  It really helped me understand the importance of the spirit in this work. He is the teacher, and we are just vessels I guess so that the spirit can help the investigator, they said that the investigators probably won`t remember what we said, but they will remember what they FELT. 

That pretty much sums up my week. It was awesome and even more miracles to come this next week, I am sure of it!! Everyone pray for the ward of Ezeiza, that it can get better and grow and divide this year! Have a good week everyone!!

Elder Ward