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So we have our zone activity today which we were just told about at 8 in the morning... so we had to completely change the day we had planned. so now we are doing mail and stuff about 5 hours earlier. Anywho, this is what I have been doing the past week. I forgot to bring anything to remind me what I did, so this is all from memory. Might be a little short.
On Tuesday we had interviews with the president. Mine went well. He told me i would probablybe in this area for a 4th transfer, so I am happy about that. he also gave me some advice and things about what to do with some current investigators that we have right now. One of them, Mario (same mario as always) the president told me to try and get a baptismal date on him one more time, and if he doesnt, drop him because now he is just taking a really long time. So that kind of surprised me. Then after the interview we also had our district meeting (which we dont normally do), the assistants talked to us. Since we were there for so long, they bought lunch for everybody, so we ate 5-6 empanadas. We were also supposed to have divisions tomorrow.
Wednesday - Divisons were cancelled for some reason or another. We will do them next week sometime. we received a referral from another area in our district, so we visited them in the morning but they were sleeping. We had lunch at the church (since our normal wednesday lunch had to be at the church for a youth activity). The youth are doing some sort of theater play involving Nephi and his family and the trip they took to America. Then we headed over to the far reaches of our area to find some more people to teach, since we didnt have very many in that area. We passed the place where Mario worked, and decided to see if he was there. He told us he was just about to leave to go to capital, and he offered to drive us if we needed to go somewhere. So we said why not, and he drove us to the complete opposite corner of our area, and we looked for new investigators in that area as well.
Thursday - In the morning we visited Silvia really quick, even though we were going to have a lesson with her in the afternoon at the Campos house, like we do every week. In the afternoon, we painted Maria Navarro´s wall. I picked the color orange, although it wasn´t exactly super orange, it was a lighter color, but thats alright. We got into a little paint fight, and
these pictures are how I ended up.
She (Maria) actually told me to write my name on her wall in paint, so I did but I forgot to take a picture of it. that will have to be for next week. Then we had our lesson with Silvia and we talked about missionary work. I gave her the book Our Search for Happiness, and wrote a few things in the front cover, and she really liked it.
Friday - Friday we tried visiting some people that we had in the northern part of our area. None of the people we tried visiting were actually there, but we did get a lot of lessons from people we contacted on the street. So that was 3-4 new investigators.
Saturday - We didn´t have a set lunch planned, so that was disappointing. We thought we were going to have to cook in the apartment. But turns out that when we went to visit a member in the ward, her sister offered to give us lunch, and we hadn´t even told her we didnt have lunch for the day. Im told that that kind of thing only happens in this ward :) then we visited the referral that we had received a few days before. They were home and awake, so they invited us in. Taught lesson 1, and he told us that his dad was a member, and that he (the referral) had actually attended church a couple times. He said he would attend church in the morning the following day. And I think we drank tea. The mom gave us some drink, and my companion said it was mate cocido (a kind of drink that is alright for us to drink), so we
drank it, and then later we found out that it was a kind of tea which we werent supposed to drink. Oops. I didn´t like the taste anyways, I only drank about a third of it. Yuck. At night we had dinner with the Campos, and I helped cook pizza. I think there is a picture of me making the bread stuff.
Sunday - We went by the referrals house to bring him to church, but because of the rain (did i mention it has been raining for a day or two?) he hadnt come back from his dads house. Excuses... So off to church. I taught the Gospel Principles class by myself, topic was work and personal responsibility. I was told it was pretty good, but i´m a gringo/yankee trying to speak spanish. Who knows! In the afternoon went to Mario´s. Talked to him a bit. Tried to get a baptismal date on him, but he still keeps saying not yet. His wife said he needed to get baptized, and he said if she wanted him to he would, but it wouldnt be for the right reason. At
least he isnt going to get baptized just because his wife wants him to... Even though he still doesnt want to get baptized it was still a really good lesson. He is a really good person, and I know that he will get baptized eventually. Still raining most of the day.
And here we are right now. We have a zone activity at 2 in the afternoon or something like that. We didn´t think we were going to have a zone activity, since our zone only had 7-8 baptisms the entire transfer... but surprise! We have to bring a liter of milk(what the heck?) and 5 pesos.
One of these days the past week (i dont remember which, I think it was Wednesday) was Día del Amigo (friends day) and is a normal thing to give gifts to your friends and things. So my companion and I bought a few little candy things and gave them to the members who help us most in the ward. They were really happy to receive something from the missionaries, haha.
Other than that I dont remember much what happened the past week... so I think that would be the end of the letter.
-Collin
So this week has been pretty cold. And the past couple days have been rainy, but I am over my cold at least, I think. Im not really sniffling all that much, so thats good.
Tuesday - today we had our special meeting in the offices. When I said it was for our zone and one other, I lied. It turns out it was for everybody in the entire mission. There are 8 new lessons that we have to use in our studies, but Im not really sure I understand what all that means yet. They aren´t going to be officially using the lessons until may or something of this coming year, which is a while away. Other than that, the meeting was pretty boring. We were there most of the day too, so we didn´t have time to do anything else when we got back to our area. Some things that did change though, instead of having zone conference every single transfer, we now have it every other trasnfer. Interviews every other transfer, too. And the president said that he would be visiting districts a lot more often during district meetings. Which means more divisions with the president.
Wednesday - In the morning we were going to visit Juan, who was baptized in December. I think this was the first time he had ever missed church, so we wanted to talk to him. As we were going, we passed one of our investigators (Osvaldo) in the street, and started talking to him. He told us that he had continued reading, and didn´t think that the book of mormon was his path. He said that he didn´t like the way that it describes how we should be obedient to Gods commandments for the blessings. So we taught him right there in the street, and he was still open to receiving us in his house, so that´s good. We´ll be vising him sometime this week. then we went to Juan, and it turns out he went to a baptism of some cousin niece or nephew something or other... Then we went to visit a family with S. Campos, who is less active (the family, not S. Campos). They showed up to church this Sunday, woohoo! They also need help with their house, so we will be going back later in the week with some leader from the ward.
Thursday - Today I have to go to Capital for my DNI (which basically is like social security number, and lets me stay in Argentina). So we left pretty early. Waited for 3 trains before we could actually get on, the trains were all full. We got to the offices, and we ended up turning around and going back to the train station for something we had to do in the station over for our DNI. Back to the offices again, and took a taxi to capital. Sat around for 50 minutes or so, and then we found out that they wanted 600 pesos (150 dollars) for each missionary for their DNI, and it used to only be 30 pesos. Then we found out that they only charge church missionaries 600 pesos. And the office elder that we were with didn´t have 600 pesos for each 7 of us, so our trip was wasted. We have to go back later. That night we taught Siliva more about how D&C came about, about the pearl of great price, and about spiritual gifts. Then S. Campos told me how well I had taught the other night when she went with us to visit a couple investigators. Hmm.
Friday - Today in the morning, not much happened. We tried visiting a couple of our investigators, and nobody was home. We were about to get into one persons house, but then a house doctor showed up that she had called for her sick kid, so we had to leave. That´s frustrating. Then at night we went again with S. Campos and leader of high priest something or other back to the Ferrandos house, where he assessed how much help they needed. He decided that they need a lot. Back to the Campos for dinner. I made bread! She said I made it pretty good too.
Saturday - This morning before we had even left for the day we were called by the zone leaders and told that we needed to be in the church building of morón 1 for a special meeting with old missionaries from the mission bahia blanca, and that we were going to do divisions with them or something. In a park near our apartment there was a large (i dont know what its called in english...) gathering? of people from the province/state who were doing documents and things faster than what is possible if they went to capital to do it. So we got a bunch of
pamphlets and things and just started talking to people in the park. we were there until we had to leave for this special meeting in morón 1. So we get to the chapel there about 30 minutes early, the bus went really quick and didn´t make any stops. Nobody was at the chapel. So we waited about 10 minutes. Called zone leaders, and they said they were on their way. Waited 10 more minutes. Called elders from Morón 1, they said they would be there in 15 minutes. Waited 10 more minutes. The old mission president from Bahia Blanca showed up, who was supposed to be giving some sort of a message in a little while, saw that nobody was there, and then left. Apparently the activity was supposed tostart at 10 in the morning and go to 6 in the afternoon, and since it was 2:30, and nobody was there, he left. Finally elders from morón 1 showed up, and they called bishop, and said the activity was postponed since they didn´t know where somebody went (but this person didnt have any relevance at all to the activity, so i was really confused why they cancelled the activity...). So that was about 2 hours wasted doing nothing at all.
Sunday - Woke up in the morning and it is raining pretty good. Campos drove us to church (mm, car :) ). We taught the lesson in gospel principles again. Then in Sacrament Meeting we ended up passing the Sacrament. It felt a little bit weird, hadn´t passed it in over a year? hah. Then S. Campos called us and asked if we had the number of someone who had just called and said a bunchof bad words and insults and things... and yeah we had the number. It´s a member, inactive. She´s crazy. So that was pretty weird. And since it was raining outside, we couldn´t find anybody at all. So the day was pretty slow.
Some questions some people have asked me...
How do lessons go with new companion? I talk a lot more then I used to talk with my old comp. We actually switch off back and forth teaching different parts of lessons and things. Most of the lessons we get are with people who are standing outside their houses. We just walk up... ´´hey, we have a gift for you...´´ lesson one pamphlet! haha. Works pretty well. It´s gotten a lot easier to teach lessons and things to people, and a bit easier just walking up to people and talking. But I noticed a definite drop in the number of people outside when its cold as opposed to when it was a bit warmer...
Anywho, I guess thats it for now...
Collin
Tuesday - zone conference. it was basically an all day thing. we left at 7:30 in the morning or so, and didnt return until almost 7 in the evening. This conference wasn´t anything special, it seemed quite normal. the mission mom (presidents wife) wasnt there because she was having some sort of toothache and stayed at home. so we got to listen to double of the president, but he gave the information that his wife would have given, so at least it was something a little bit different. I didn´t have to speak either, which was good. I actually finished my talk the night before... but I don´t know how good it would have come out if I had had to give it. Lucky :) I still didn´t get the new spanish bibles I have been asking for for 6 weeks. Since the LDS version of the bible recently came out within the past year, everybody
is still ordering a ton and there are not enough to go around. Really annoying for missionaries. Spent a long time looking for a bookstore in Morón central that sells different things we needed to buy. It was kind of odd that we couldnt find what we wanted... At 7 we left to go to a family who is somewhat active, coming every 2 weeks or so, and I had told them that we would stop by today at 7... but when we knocked the lights all turned out. Kind of frustrating.
Wednesday - So this morning is when I started to feel a cold coming on. For the past 5 days (from today) I have had a stuffy nose part of the day, then a runny nose the other part of the day, and a little bit of a sore throat. It was cold in the morning too. We had lunch at our normal place on Wedneday, and while I was in the bathroom one of the kids put a bunch of spice in my food. I didn´t even notice it, I was wondering why everybody was watching me so intently haha. Got to the Iskras (member family) who was supposed to have an investigator
there for us to teach, but they didnt show up. We were supposed to return 2 hours later, so we did, and they still werent there. Yarggghhh. Then we went to Mario and Laura´s (one who wasnt married, then was, then didnt want to get baptized). Talked to him for about an hour, and he says he wants to get baptized, just not yet. So we will continue visiting him once a week or so...
Thursday - S Campos suggested I do some specific exercises in the morning that would help me feel better with my stuffed up nose, but it only helped while I did them. Afterwards I still felt congested. Oh well, it worked for a little bit at least. I had seen a bookstore that we passed last night, so we went there in the morning and bought some stuff for 2 of the kids in the campos family. It was the oldest kids birthday a few days ago, but she was ´´bad´´ and her parents didnt want to celebrate her birthday. It was also another one of the kids birthday this saturday. It was a surprise party for the older one, since she didnt think her parents would do anything for her. Anywho, we bought them birthday presents. And there was going to be a
birthday party this Saturday. Today my companion started having a really bad toothache or something like that. Thats why you should brush your teeth :) Had a lesson with Silvia about family history, then had to leave really quick for our first ward council meeting. It didnt really benefit us very much, after an hour of listening, we took our 5 minutes of time and then left.
Friday - Independence Day for Argentina! (or something like that). We talked to a guy on the bus today (or rather he talked to us) and he told us he spoke english. We thought he was a little drunk, so my companion who is learning english asked ´´you are drunk?´´ he shook his head no. ´´what you smoking?´´ but i dont think he understood that, hah. Then he got off the bus. I peeled onions at the Campos´. It made me cry, it was really bad.
Saturday - today not really much happened... we tried visiting a ton of people, nobody was home. everybody we contacted in the street just kept walking and didn´t even say anything to us....
Sunday - Had breakfast in the morning at a members house (the members here really love us!). I ended up having to teach the Gospel Principles class today, without any preparation. Goodie me. It was over the fast. At least it wasnt the next week, titled ´´sacrifice´´ or something like that. Im not even sure what that entails... and we still dont have a gospel principles teacher, so we will probably have to teach it again next week. woohoo for comps turn to teach the class. It started raining a little bit today as well. Very cloudy.
Monday - woke up today and it was cold. But cold. ugh. I am wearing 2 sweaters right now. And other than that its been a normal p day so far...
Dont really have much else to say. Did everybody have a good 4th of july weekend/party/whatever you did? We saw pictures on S. Campos facebook of someone in the united states, and it looks nice and hot there. the opposite of here...
we were called last night, and we have another conference or something with the mission president tomorrow in Ramos. It must be a cane dropper or something, because we already had our zone conference, and we were supposed to have district meetings this week. I guess we´ll find out tomorrow...
Collin
Hello everyone...
So Monday night, we got a call from our lunch for the next day, telling us that she had to cancel. So that night I called a bunch of people, and I was able to understand everything they said. I thought that was pretty neat. Then S. Campos asked me to ´´tutor´´ her daughter in english, since she wasn´t doing very good in that subject in school. So that was half an hour
of service! That night I also found out that we had divisions the next day as well...
Tuesday - We were told to be at District Meeting 10 minutes early for some reason or another... and we got there, and sat there for 40 minutes, waiting for it to start. Fun! Right after district meeting we started divisions. I went with a Canadian (yuck haha) who was 25 years old. He had been out a transfer longer than me... and he did not speak very good spanish. So I did most of the teaching that day.
We received a referral from the buenos aires south mission that day as well. it said they were awaiting visits and wanted a book of mormon. when we went to the address, some lady came to the door and said they dont live there, but i didn´t believe her. so we are going to go back sometime this week. Then I talked to a guy that didn´t have everything in the head, and he really liked to touch my face. That was a bit strange. So I ended that lesson as quick as I could, hah. Then at night we were supposed to have our executive committee meeting, and after we had been waiting for 40 minutes, they told us they werent going to have it. what a waste of time...
Wednesday - We were supposed to end divisions in the morning, so we went to our normal meeting place. Then we get a phone call asking where we are. We were supposed to meet at a train station in between our 2 areas. The other 2 missionaries had gone past our meeting spot, all the way through our area, and to the train station in central moron. In the complete opposite direction. So we wasted a ton of coins going back and forth... that was annoying. Then we went to a glasses store, since my companion couldnt see very well. 2 comps in a row who bought glasses. Lets see how long I can keep this up! Then I began to cut my hair that night. I took out my clean laundry and found these messages on my clothes, from the Campos Family.
´´Lo queremos mucho´´ is just an easy way of saying we love you, and then the other one says ´´were going to miss you´´ which i assume means when I leave... but thats not for another 4 weeks or so, at least. From what S. Campos told me, I´m the first one that her kids have done that for. :)
Thursday - We went to our normal lunch at a family named Espindola, the dad is an inactive member. there were people there this time that werent normally. and so naturally we got on the topic of mormons and things. we talked a lot about temples, and if i didn´t know better, I would have said that the mom was a member. She knew a ton about the church and temples and things. And they said that they would be there next week too for lunch again, so another lesson! That night, before we did our normal weekly lesson with Silvia, recent convert, S. Campos had me translate a TON of stuff for her that her friends had put on facebook and things. It was all political stuff, and I dont know the words for political things, so it was somewhat difficult, but she understood. Then we taught Silvia about patriarchal blessings. She really liked last weeks lesson about temples, and she wants to go when she reaches her 1 year mark.
Friday - Well, I am a little behind in writing in journal right now, and hence I have not written friday saturday or sundays yet. Yeah... I need to catch up tonight. Friday, from what I remember, not much happened. There was a party for an Elder who had served here in this area, he and his family were visiting. They went to Canary Islands, and Chile, then here. He had 2 sisters and his parents. the sisters spoke spanish (both served missions in south america) but the parents didnt speak a thing. so while the rest of the family was talking with the members and things, the members that wanted to talk to the parents used me as a translator. I have been translating a lot this week...
oh and one more thing. that night when the district leader called us for our data and things, he told us that we were given permission to watch the ARGENTINA GAME TOMORROW!
Saturday - ARGENTINA VERSUS GERMANY (I think Alemania is Germany in spanish, at least...). Too bad we got beat. After the game, there weren´t very many people in the street, I think they were all drinking inside their houses or something. But it seems to be fairly normal again.
Sunday - We (my companion and I) decided that we are going to get Mario baptized (the one who wasnt married, and then when he was married didnt want to get baptized...). They were at church again. 3 times in the past month, and for my first 3 months here they didnt attend once. Good sign, in my opinion. Then after church we visited a couple inactive members who hadn´t met my new companion yet.
Okay... so it has actually gotten hot here again. Its been hot for the past 3 or 4 days now, as in we actually sweat just walking in the street. That hasn´t happened since my first 2 weeks here. Today though (Monday) it is very cloudy, VERY windy, and it is definitely cooler. During the night last night, I had to get up and take off a bunch of layers because I was so hot.
We spend today in Morón ´´shopping´´, when we really couldnt find hardly anything that we were looking for.
We took this picture of a cockroach on the wall. Hope all of you enjoy.
The cat (hah I wrote ´´gat´´ first, cat and gato...) found my arms nice and snuggly, and completely just slept like that for 2 hours during the soccer game.
Then the other picture is my comp.
Lesson to everybody - thats why you dont pick your nose :)
I found out today that we have our zone conference tomorrow. Which we did not know about. For every zone conference everybody has to prepare a talk. And I still havent prepared mine. Woohoo for a one day preparation...
I find myself liking the members in this area more and more. I dont want to leave after this transfer, which is a possibility.
Someone asked me if it was hard getting in to teach people. Depends on the people. Some people are really nice and will just always open the door to you, even if theyre not interested. Others will make all sorts of excuses and things to not let you in. We end up teaching the majority of our lessons to people that are sitting outside their houses enjoying the day or
cleaning their yard or something. Yesterday, we me a J-Dub (jehovahs witness). She was the nicest jdub i have ever met. and she was actually interested in what we said too. We taught her a quick lesson about the restoration, and we have a return appointment with her for the end of the week.
Thanks for all the songs that everybody has sent me. They are really good :)
And I think thats about it for this week.... we´ll see if i come up with anything after i send this letter.
-Collin
One more thing...
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! I didnt know it was 4th of july until i was sitting in church and the Campos´ told me it was independence day in the states. hah.
One more thing .. hah.
Silvia, recent convert, received a church calling this week! She is now the
second counselor in relief society. Hooray!
